Endgame
by burgundy11
Summary: A series of stories that will focus around the aftermath of the battle at the Dragon's table; where the final battle has concluded and left in its wake a man who begins to blur the lines between humanity, godhood, and madness.
1. Chapter 1

Endgame

The azure haired prince staggered backwards, clutching at the gaping hole in his chest that an electrical bolt had bored into him. With his strength fleeting, he collapsed onto one knee as he struggled to push air through his lungs. As the corners of his vision beginning to fade, the prince realized that he was nearing the end; with that realization, he looked up at his comrade standing across from him, "I understand... it seems fate had different ideas for us in mind. We fought to alter our paths... and failed. My friend, I should of trusted you when you needed it most."

Barely finishing his words, the prince proceeded to cough blood and spasm as his body went into shock from the trauma. The entire time this went on the purple haired tactician in front of him had been stock still. His only movement being his eyes staring at his hands, and then his friend before him, and back again. Once the prince had begun to fall forward from his wounds however, the man was finally shocked from his rigor and rushed forward catching him with but a moment to spare.

The purple haired tactician laid his friend gently down onto the cold stone floor beneath them; as he did so the prince began coughing up more blood, shooting some of it onto the tactician's face. The prince opened his eyes and looked up at his friend for what would likely be the last time, "Sorry about the blood, ha, it seems we finally ran out of luck" coughing as he tried to speak with the tactician. The prince noticed the blood on his friend's face was the exact color as his eyes, _I wonder if it is even him, no, it is. This is the same doubt that got us into this situation. Could this have been avoided if we had acted differently? A question for another time I suppose._

Looking down at his friend, the tactician again found himself unable to do anything. Even though the tactician had been in countless battles that had very nearly cost him his life, he was uncharacteristically stunned into near paralysis. Listening to the prince's ragged attempts to continue breathing, he felt as though the room was spinning around him; beginning to feel ill from the speed of the motion, the tactician grabbed his head in a feeble attempt to halt the spinning. What was far more effective than his hands however, was the cessation of the prince's breathing; not only did the room come to a screeching halt, but time itself seemed to have frozen in order to take note of what had happened. The tactician began to violently shudder as the realization sunk in, the prince was dead, and he had killed him.

Sinking backwards, the tactician tried in vain to process what had just happened, _I... I... had no choice, he tried to kill me; what else could I do? _With his mind set on this repeating train of thought, time passed him quickly until finally he looked at the body, looked around himself, and shattered the silence with a wail of agony.

After what felt like hours, the tactician slowly crawled towards his friend's body. Despite not being but ten feet from his former friend, it seemed as if he was crossing an expanse miles long as weights were attached to his feet in order to reach him. Collapsing down to his knees next to the body, he stared in silence at his friend.

_I can't leave him, especially not here of all place, _Thought the tactician bitterly to himself.

Being as gentle as possible, the tactician began to close his friend's cloak and pull his arms over his chest. As he pulled his right arm into place, the tactician jolted when he heard a loud clang of metal on stone; his head spinning in pursuit of the source, he realized that the lord had never let his grip loosen on Falchion. Falchion... the blade of the Exalted Line, and it had fallen from his hand and sat on the stone next to its previous owner.

The Tactician paused, _He would want her to have it, I can do that much at least, t_hought the tactician as he recalled his dead friend's daughter back in the castle. Thinking further on her, he recalled that it would soon be her 12th birthday in a few weeks, "Happy birthday princess, I bet you will always remember this one, and for all the wrong reasons." Smiling bitterly as he attempted to avoid lapsing into self-loathing once more, the tactician bent low to pick up Falchion; any thoughts or regrets he had at the moment were quickly silenced as his eyes went wide at the sensation of his hand feeling as if it was on fire. Shrieking from the searing pain in his hand, the tactician immediately released his grip of the blade while clutching his twitching palm within the bowels of his coat.

_I suppose I shouldn't be surprised at that happening, I wonder if this is a recent development though? _The tactician kept his glare fixed to the blade as he recalled the fact that he had never actually handled the blade before. Wrapping his hand in several layers of his coat, he was able to grasp the blade despite the heat he could feel quickly building back up on it; before the sensation overwhelmed him though, the tactician was able to maneuver it into its scabbard before its displeasure became too noticeable.

With his friend's body ready, the tactician slowly lifted him from the ground and began to make his way out of the grand altar. Slowly walking towards the chamber's exit, the tactician dragged himself and his friend forward as if the weight of the world were upon his shoulder's. Making his way out of the room, the tactician cleared the archway separating the altar room from the hallway outside only to freeze immediately after rounding the corner; for sitting directly in front of the tactician was the hallway's main reflection mirror.

Looking into the mirror, the tactician took stock of what had undoubtedly driven his friend to attack him; his normally pale complexion had reached the point where he was practically a white sheet, which was in pointed contrast to the small patches of what seemed to be obsidian scales on his skin in random splotches. Next he noticed that the mark of Grima, normally a dull purple, had begun to glow with a sort of internal light; also, it seemed that purple lines crawled upwards from his hands into his arms. Removing his coat and pulling his shirt up, the tactician saw(to his horror) that the lines converged into a much larger sigil of Grima on his chest. Looking back up, he finally noticed what had to be the most prominent feature of his change, his eyes. Where before the tactician had dark brown eyes, now he couldn't tell if they remained so since his irises glowed a bright blood red.

Taking into account everything he saw, he looked back at the the reflection, not with the initial shock and horror he felt, but now with a hate and loathing that had been slowly building inside of him. He saw in that image everything he didn't want to be, everything that had embittered him over the years, everything that had brought him agony, and everything he hated. Staring himself in the eyes, he felt the anger and loathing towards himself build and build; finally when he thought he saw the image leer at him he snapped and could no longer tolerate the monstrosity that was before him and threw a simple fireball at the image as it continued to mock him. As the smoke cleared and the ringing in his ears ceased, the tactician saw that the fireball that should of shattered the glass and scorched the wall, had instead left a gaping ten foot hole, collapsed the adjoining room, and threw him and the prince's body back a good twenty feet. Once the ringing finally ceased, he could of sworn that he could hear himself laughing all around him.

Pushing himself up to a sitting position, the tactician looked around himself at all the carnage he wrought with what should have been a simple spell. Covering his ears with his hands, the tactician thought of his short past with his friends. Looking again at the remnants of the wall in front of him, the tactician pondered how after all they had done it had come to this; that Validar had succeeded in his plans, and yet aside from the prince's death and his own visual changes nothing theoretically had changed. Finally, surrounded by his own cackling, the tactician gave life to the truth he had first suspected months ago in Valm, that Grima, the ancient dragon he and the prince had sought to stop, had been him all along. Looking at a shard of glass to his side, he again saw his eyes, and finally accepted that no matter what he did, nothing would change that Robin was always the lie, and that he was always Grima.

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><p><strong>AN: So, my first story here, don't really know what to type here except that I hope anyone who reads this enjoyed themselves. I do want to thank Metallover and Dane Namor though; they really helped me out a great deal in refining myself to this point and if you haven't read Metallover's Invisible Ties or Dane's Tales Through Time you are really missing out on some of the best Fire Emblem work here on FF. So if you are reading this and haven't seen those two stories, rectify it(you won't regret it). With that please leave your thoughts on the work and the story so that I can continue to get better and hopefully make stories that everyone can enjoy in their free time.<strong>


	2. Chapter 2

It was a thick, black night at the palace in Ylissetol. Although the chaos of a few weeks prior from when the Exalt and his chief general had rallied as much of the Halidom's army had died down, not many could sleep easily with so many loved ones off in uncertainty. One such person was a certain blue-haired eleven year old wandering the darkened halls of the palace of Ylissetol; while on prior nights she was able to eventually pass off into slumber, this night she could not do so.

Ever since midday she had felt a strange unease; shortly after lunch she had felt her stomach clench, her heart quicken, and an incredible urge to simply collapse to her knees and bawl her eyes out, and she could not understand why she felt so. So with this strange feeling over her throughout the day and into the night, she could not fall asleep; so she roamed the castle halls aimlessly, hoping that her father and Robin would hopefully return soon as they had both promised. In an attempt to chase off the heavy feeling in her heart, she thought back to the promises that both had made to her on the eve of their departure.

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><p>The sun shone brightly over Ylissetol, and Robin was spending this beautiful day pouring over dispatches, reports, and deployment orders. Several days prior he and Chrom had discovered that Validar had finally made his move; he had apparently shifted himself, the Plegian Mage Corp, and the bulk of the Plegian Army to the Dragon's Table so that he could perform some ritual involving the Fire Emblem that would enable Grima to reawaken. To that order, Chrom had ordered as much of the Halidom's manpower to rally at the capitol as soon as humanly possible in order to stop him and recover the Fire Emblem; of course this series of events resulted in Robin being buried under a literal avalanche of paperwork which even three days later he was still struggling to cope with.<p>

Wiping his eyes in an attempt to alleviate the strain, Robin was about to hand off the next set of dispatches to the runner waiting beside him when he heard his door creak open and sniffling emerge from behind it. Looking up from his desk, he noticed the Princess of the Halidom emerge from behind the door with reddened, puffy eyes, "Lucina, have you been crying, is something the matter?"

Handing the dispatches to the runner, the tactician waited for him to leave and then motioned for the Princess to sit next to him, "So, I take it you want to talk about it with me?"

While rubbing her eyes the princess nodded an affirmative before beginning, "I was listening to some of the officers talking, they said it would take nothing short of a miracle to defeat Valider, that you and father were leading the army to the grave."

"I see", Robin put his hand on her head and gave it a reassuring rub before he lifted her chin, "don't worry, if Chrom and I were to die because of every time the situation looked bad, we would have been buried long ago. We've been through situations that looked just as bad, if not worse, and come up winners regardless of what anyone else thought. Plus, haven't you heard before, I'm a strategist, I deal in miracles, what is one more?"

At this Lucina gave a giggle before looking back at him, "so do you promise when you get back you will continue to teach me tactics so I can not only be a master swordsman like father , but also a general like you?"

Beginning to chuckle himself Robin felt some of his stress from earlier start to lift away, "sure, I promise, when we finish thrashing Validar at the Table, I'll make you the best general that ever was Exalt." Pausing and thinking for a moment, the tactician quickly corrected himself, "Exalt to be for now actually".

Thinking to himself for a moment, the tactician stood up and walked over to one of his bookshelves and extracted from it a book that when examined seemed almost out of place amongst all the the others that had been gifted to him by the Exalt and other important state officials and dignitaries; where the other books were all of high quality and looked as if they had never spent a day outside of Robin's office, this book looked as worn as he did, it looked as if all the marches and battles Robin had gone through were weathered by it alongside him. Walking back towards Lucina the tactician quickly took the book and promptly dropped it into her hands with a smile, "I remembered your birthday is coming up, so consider this an early gift from me to you."

Looking at the big with her widening blue eyes, Lucina quickly turned it over and read the title aloud, "The Plegian Lieutenant's Guide to Leadership and Command."

"Yes, it was my first manual when I started learning tactics." Robin paused and sighed before continuing, "It was given to me by my mother a long time ago."

At this Lucina looked back at the tactician, "Your mother, you never talk about her, or your father."

Flinching at the last word, Robin frowned as he recalled his father; though his mother had taken them both as far from his grasp as possible at an early age, he still had memories of him growing up, all unpleasant. Robin returned to reality though as he felt something tug at his sleeve. "Robin, are you alright, you look like you ate a bad egg. Maybe you should see aunt Lissa, the last time father ate a bad egg he was stuck in bed for a week."

"It was not a week, it was more like four days, and it wasn't from a bad egg of all things." Hearing a new voice both Lucina and Robin looked towards the the door to the office and noticed that Chrom had walked in during their conversation.

"Father, look what uncle Robin gave me!" As Lucina ran to Chrom, she almost jabbed him in the chest with the book trying to show him.

Avoiding his daughter's attempt to stab him in the chest with Robin's book, Chrom took the book from her, "I see, hmm, I remember this book, isn't this the ratty book you dragged around with you ever since we met robin?"

"It is not ratty! It is simply weathered." Robin shouted until noticing the smirk on his friends face, "You're awful, you know that?"

"Her mother keeps mentioning it." Chrom's smirk dissappered as he shifted back to the reason he came here originally, "Either way, I came to tell you the regiments from the the eastern provinces finally arrived and everyone is packed and ready to march, are you set?"

At this Robin sighted, "I suppose I am as ready as I will ever be." At this the two began prepare to leave the room; Chrom turned to Lucina and kneeled to her level, "I have to go now, I will miss you and your sister; promise to be good for mother while I am gone?"

Lucina grabbed a hold of his hand and looked back at him, "How long will you be gone, you will come back soon and continue to teach me swordmanship?"

Smiling at his daughter, Chrom reassuringly squeezed her hand, "Of course, I promise we will both be back before you know it."

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><p>Opening her eyes again, Lucina finished recalling the promise the two had made, and despite the feeling of dread that had gripped her all day, she felt at ease. As she started to turn back to her room, she froze as she heard a large crash come from the offices down the corridor, Robin's offices after she realized where she was.<p>

In said office was currently a tactician who was still learning the ins and outs of teleportation, and had just added his desk to the list of things he had broken in the process. Looking around the room to ensure that he was at least in his offices, Robin bent low to pick up the Falchion and the several sheets he had wrapped it in.

Little did either know, that across the castle in a locked room, a dark mage with eyes and throat sore from sobbing shot up from her bed as she felt the tingle of magic and a the familiar sensation of a mage she knew. In but an instant, the dark mage's door flew open into the knight commander trying to coax it open and was racing through hallways with a confused and bleeding knight commander trying to keep up with her frenzied pace.

Hearing the door creak, Robin Froze in place; slowly turning his head to the door hoping that the door was simply blown open by one of the castle's notorious drafts. Instead he found himself staring right into Lucina's blue eyes, and her staring back into his own red eyes, "Robin… is that you?" Hearing the word, Robin shook himself from his paralysis and tried to back away, only to realize she was standing in the only doorway out of the room.

"Robin," she said again as she started to approach the cloaked man before her, "is that really you".

"No, please stay back, I don't want to hurt anyone else.", Robin shouted as he tried in vain to push himself through the wall his back was currently against.

Looking at him with a confused stare, Lucina couldn't understand why he was acting so strangely; she also didn't understand why his eyes were glowing a low red. Finally, she asked the question that Robin dreaded, "Did father come back with you, is he here?" At this, Robin, buried under guilt of what happened at the Table, and Lucina's inquisitive stare, simply fell back against the wall and lamented his failure as tears again marred his face. Only when he felt something around his neck did he reopen his eyes, "please, don't cry Robin, why are you so sad?"

At this, Robin simply handed her the bundled falchion; she slowly unwrapped the blade, and upon seeing the the hilt protrude from the bundle after unwrapping it, she froze as the implication became clear. Robin was giving her the Falchion, the blade that her father told her she would inherit when he was unable to wield it, "I wish it were different," looking back up at Robin with her own reddening eyes, she tried to hold back tears as he spoke, "I failed both of you, I'm sorry."

"But it isn't your fault, I'm sure you tried your best to save him," whispered Lucina as she finally began to shake from the revelation and cling to Robin harder.

Hearing this Robin pushed Lucina back and made her look him in the eyes, "Look at me, look at my eyes, my skin, the markings all over my body, I am a monster; how can this not be my fault?"

"You're not a monster, you're my uncle!" Lucina yelled back at him.

"No, I'm not," Robin said as he built his resolve for what he had to do, "I'm Grima, your father didn't die because I failed him, he died because I killed him with my own hands. Robin is as dead as Chrom is." As he finished Robin began to hear the unmistakable sounds of people running and the jingle of armor getting closer to where they were. With a sigh, Robin realized he needed to go, "I have to go now." Unsure of what to say to the stock still girl in front of him, Robin simply backed away and teleported from the room.

Moments later, a dark mage with several knights on her tail burst through the door to the office. On entry all they saw was the princess standing in the center of the room holding Falchion; for a moment both parties stared at each, until finally the princess let out the tears she had been holding in for so long. She cried that she had been traded a sword for both her father and uncle.

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><p><strong>AN: So chapter two, heavy on interaction between early Grima and Lucina, but this and the next chapter are a little hand in hand for being dialogue heavy. with that I wish happy reading to all( and don't forget to let me know what you think).<strong>


	3. Chapter 3

In the fields west of Ylissetol, near the border with Plegia, a man shifted through the trees under the cover of darkness; looking back towards the capitol, he breathed a sigh of relief as he felt that he had finally put sufficient distance between himself and the palace. He wondered why he was so nervous; after all, he teleported from the palace and it was highly unlikely anyone would search beyond the walls of the capitol. Stopping for a moment, he wondered if they were even looking at all for him here or in Plegia.

"I think you already know the answer to that question, don't you Lord Grima?" With widened eyes Robin spun around towards the voice he had hoped he would never hear again and instinctively tossed a fireball towards it; only to be disappointed as the figure he hated for so much of his life simply sidestepped the ball that continued on its path and fizzled in the distance, "Validar! I see it was too much to hope that at least you had died as well at the table, I thought at least I was free of your torment."

"Not quite, my dear boy, my work is almost complete, almost. Until I finish, I fear you will have to suffer my help somewhat longer." Validar said with his usual air of superiority he always seemed to exude.

Robin couldn't help but snarl back at him, "Your help!? Your help has done nothing but bring me misery and the deaths of my friends! Please, I can suffer little more of your help."

Validar could not help but smirk at this, "Oh, really? Please tell me how I killed your friend?" This only caused Robin's face to redden to the same hue as his eyes. "Please son, I do not recall how I struck him down; so if you could enlighten your forgetful father I would be mo-"

"Shut up!" Robin finally snapped at Validar, "You tricked us, forced us, you did this to me!"

Validar now began to laugh outright at this, "Ah responsibility, an interesting concept, one that humans often avoid and always put upon others. Enough of this, you made your choice and killed him, I will agree that his response to the discovery of your true identity provoked your response though."

Robin was only further angered by this, "My true identity? You made me look like a monster!"

At this Validar's laughter ceased, his eyes narrowed, and his normally level tone took a sharp edge, "No, I did nothing of the sort, I only removed what I had cast before."

"What are you talking about?" Despite the question, Robin could probably guess that his former look was the illusion, and this was real.

"You already know your past self's image was a sham; I had cast an illusionary hex upon you when you were born to hide your true nature until you were ready, good thing I did considering your mother's treachery." Validar smiled as he seemed to further recall something else, "Though if she had ever bothered to learn any manner of dark magery, she would of realized how pointless attempting to hide you was."

"Why is that? We were hidden and outside of your reach; how would you even of begun to search," Said Robin incredulously.

As Robin finished his statement, Validar could only snicker at the thought of being unable to find Robin, "Tell me, have you not noticed how every time you meet a dark mage they cannot help but notice you, that they seem to be inexplicably drawn to you? Any dark mage with an inkling of talent would see you like a ship that sees a lighthouse on the horizon. She could no more hide you from my sight then she could hide the sun from a peasant. You were never really out of our sight or reach, I merely decided that letting you reside with her in Ylisse in anonymity would ironically be safer than residing in Plegia where those who knew of your true nature would seek to use you to their own ends." Validar said while chuckling at the irony of it.

Turning back to face robin Validar returned to his original business, "but that is in the past now, and I think you would rather I finish my business and leave you, correct?"

Robin shot a look of disgust back at Validar, "to be honest I would rather you just skip the business and leave."

Validar simply ignored Robin's quip and continued to speak, "so, are you finished with burdening yourself with those who would either scorn you or pretend you are dead now."

"They are not a burden, and they have not forgotten me." Robin said with as much conviction as he could muster.

"Hmmm, I suspected you would think as much," Validar paused with thought for a moment, "then simply pay attention." As he finished his statement Validar had begun weaving his hands in an intricate spell; finishing the spell a dark cloud began to pool at their feet before them, "watch, and see how much your supposed Ylissen friends and comrades care for you."

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><p>Frederick sat upon a stool next to the bed of what was now his new liege, as he sat his mind raced on how things had gone so wrong, how the army had been destroyed at the table, how Chrom had been killed, and how he had failed him when he was needed the most. Honestly the only thing that kept him together at this point was the simple fact that the princess's mother was in shambles and that no one else that was capable of maintaining some semblance of order within the palace and seat of government was available. As he wallowed in his thoughts, he looked at the princess that he had found earlier in Robin's offce; after she had bawled for what seemed like ages, she eventually just passed out from the stress of learning what happened.<p>

Frederick was then suddenly stirred from his thoughts by the princess beginning to stir before him; standing up, he peered at her and waited with baited breath to see if she would awaken, "Princess, can you hear me?"

Slowly Lucina opened her eyes and noticed the knight standing over her, as she processed what he said she slowly nodded her head in an affirmative.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Frederick next turned to the part which he dreaded to bring up, "Princess, do you remember what happened last night?"

The princess returned a negative nod as she began to speak, "No…"

Thinking over what to do in his head, Frederick and Lucina simply stared at each other for a few minutes before Frederick finally made his mind up, "milady, I am sorry to inform you that… your father… fell at the Dragon's table."

Upon hearing this Lucina continued to stare at Frederick, "He promised though…", whispering so silently that even Frederick had to strain to hear her. Thinking back upon the promise her father made, she also recalled the one Robin made as well. With her voice beginning to quake, she asked Frederick a question she dreaded the answer to, "and Robin?"

Hearing Robin's name Frederick's breath stilled, he had not thought of how to deal with this question. He would of rather simply not had to deal with it, but he knew it would come up. Finally reaching a decision on what to do, Frederick only hoped it was the right thing to do, "I am sorry, but Robin fell to Grima as well as your father, he is dead."

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><p>Robin continued to stare at the cloud as it began to dim and disperse; long after it had disappeared he still stared at the ground it had been above.<p>

Seeking to break the silence Validar spoke first, "If they knew what happened to Chrom, I could see why they may want to consider you dead to them, but they don't, they simply cast you out since they cannot stand who you are. Ylisse and its citizens have always been as such, they claim moral superiority while ostracizing those they consider as unacceptable to their religious dogma, and you unfortunately are the pinnacle of what they despise."

After what he had seen Robin could barely keep a steady voice, "all those years we fought together, all the sacrifice, and it means nothing to them? They all see me and think I that am a monster." As he spoke Robins voice slowly started to pick up as his confusion gave way to anger at his betrayal, "After everything I sacrificed for them this is how they repay me, they take one look at me and abandon me when I need them most; they simply would rather think that I died and am nothing left but a disease to be fought and killed!"

As Robin's anger mounted, he eventually turned back to Validar, "And what was your role in all of this, why did you drag me into this world."

Validar for the first time simply stood there as his face took on the look of recalling his past, "I sought you out; the Great Crusade Ylisse carried out against Plegia… took everything I cared about. You don't remember now, but you came to me when I was but a young acolyte and made me an offer; you offered to bring Ylisse and its people to justice in return for my dedication to returning you to the mortal plane." Validar noticing Robin's confused look quickly headed off his next question, "And no, you did not tell me of your memory or past, only of your offer; I can only guess that you wished to continue your feud with Naga." At the mention of Naga, Robin felt a cold heat build within him, in the past he had noticed it as well, but only now did he understand why he felt that way.

With the cold anger inside him dying down, Robin's thoughts returned to the present and he did his best to recall what he knew of the Great Crusade; it had been waged by Chrom's father, the Exalt before Emmeryn, roughly twenty years prior and had destroyed much of the two countries, "But the Exalt that carried it out died in the war, you already have your justice against him, the people simply want peace."

Hearing this Validar immediately lost his composure, "LIES! Don't tell me that Cornelius was the only one to blame for the atrocities of the Crusade, the people of Ylisse desired the sands of Plegia be drenched with its people's blood just as much as he did." Finishing this Validar quickly restrained himself and recomposed himself, "My apologies Lord Grima, you only have your memories of the past twenty years, without the rest of your memory you won't understand that while Cornelius did indeed instigate it, his people were just as eager as he in its prosecution."

Thinking back on the people of Ylisse Robin couldn't fathom them willingly perpetrating such acts, "Cornelius is gone now, the Crusade ended twenty years ago."

At this Validar couldn't help but sigh, "The Crusade only ended because Emmeryn and Chrom willed it, and don't forget the people's rancor at Emmeryn over it. Even now, with both you and Chrom no longer restraining the people and nobility of Ylisse they are beginning to restart their crusade and satiate the lust they have bred from their intolerance and hate."

Remembering Lucina back at the palace, robin recalled how much she reminded him of Chrom, "Lucin-"

"Is an eleven year old girl." Validar quickly interjected, "Maybe she will restrain Ylisse like her father and aunt did, but she certainly is not currently capable of doing so.

Robin still couldn't believe that the people themselves would wantonly thirst for blood as Validar described, "Doubtful, people can change."

"Maybe," Validar said while ruefully shaking his head, "but I already know that they have not. My power is nearly spent and I am about to fade, but with what I have left I can send you to the border so that you can witness what I already know. Then, once you see the bile that lies beneath the gilding of Ylisse, you will understand again, and I hope you will make them pay for their sins."

With the last of his power Validar quickly teleported Robin to the border of Ylisse and Plegia before he could say anything; with that done, Validar began to feel faint and lose the feeling he had in his extremities. As he walked west towards home, Validar could slowly feel his spell fail and his body turning to dust; despite this he walked with a smile on his face, as he knew that after so long: Ylisse would finally pay for all of its crimes, that's its people would know the hopelessness that Plegia felt, that they would feel loss as he had, and that they would finally understand what it feels to stand in the midst of a burnt and ruined town with your wife and son lying burnt at your feet.

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><p><strong>AN: So, here we begin the first step to hell for Robin. As some of you pointed out, its an interesting bit that with Robin and Grima being the same person, there is no loss of control and Robin retains choice; the catch is that the story had to reflect a believable situation in which Robin would eventually become the monster we know at the end. Honestly, The Great Crusade is probably the best way to supply Validar with a believable motivation for his actions while also painting Ylissens in a poor enough light to where Robin might begin to side against them after he feels abandoned. Hope you guys have fun with this chapter, and please leave your thoughts or questions in a review or send me a pm, I always welcome discourse or debate.<strong>


	4. Chapter 4

In the ruins of a once peaceful town on the Plegian-Ylissen border, several soldiers clad in black Plegian platemail were slowly going about the grim task of sifting through the burnt ashes of the town in a vain attempt to find survivors and collect the dead for burial. As the men continued with their grim charge, one of the soldiers approached what was their leader standing near the center of the town, "Captain Valens, the scouts returned."

The Soldier with purple trimming on his armor, which denoted his rank, was sitting as he wiped sweat from his brow and tried to get the soot and ash from his red hair out. Finally giving up on the task, he set his halberd down and turned to examine the town while speaking with the man, "I take it by your tone our fears are realized?"

The man nodded, "Unfortunately yes, the Ylissen Knights are currently making for the border back into Ylisse as we speak; they are moving slowly though as they seem to be carrying a fair deal of loot and salvage from the town," The sergeant spitting out the last part with particular disgust.

Closing his eyes and sighing, the captain dreaded the implications of the sergeant's report, "So,there is our answer then, they are literally carrying the evidence of their deeds with them. So this is it then, our fears have returned; the Ylissen Crusaders have finally come to finish what they started."

As the captain and sergeant stood there trying to determine how to deal with the situation before them, their attention was suddenly grabbed by a portal unexpectedly opening in the town center and spitting out what looked to be a mage. With tensions amongst the soldiers already high, the portal suddenly opening near them promptly resulted in them all ceasing their current activities, drawing their weapons, and quickly forming a circle around the hooded mage.

As the soldiers prepared to lunge with their halberds while the mage started casting, the captain rushed forward to intervene before his day worsened anymore, "Hold! Lower your weapons, don't strike!" The captain then turned to address the mage while gesturing he meant no harm, "You there, are you a member of the mage corps, that was a Plegian teleportation spell if I am not mistaken."

Seeing that the men had heeded their captain and while not sheathing their weapons, they had lowered them, Robin ceased his own casting, "No, I'm not a member of the mage corps, but what happened here?"

The captains attention returned to the burnt bodies around him, "What do you think, the Crusade happened; Ylissen knights came through and burned the town and put its populace to the sword before carrying off everthing of value."

"Why?" Robin asked, his voice laced with disbelief.

The captain gave him an incredulous look, "What do you mean why? Isn't it obvious, Plegians worship Grima, and that's all the excuse Ylisse needs to abandon their pretenses of moral superiority and act like animals."

"And I suppose Grima told you that Ylisse did it as opposed to bandits?" Robin replied back.

The captain calmly responded despite his agitation at the mage's attitude, "No, he did not. My scouts however gave me an interesting report about a group of Ylissen knights making for the border from this direction." Robin held his breath at this point, the captain however was not yet finished, "Even more damning is the fact that they were also covered in blood and ash, as if they were part of a bloodbath and then attempted to burn away the evidence of their deeds." Noticing he had Robin's full attention now, the captain drove his last point home, " I suppose they could have been fighting our own soldiers and simply had burned the bodies after the conflict, but that leaves the incredibly awkward question of why they were loaded down with carts of loot and salvage that appear to be from a town and not a company of soldiers."

With the captain finished, he and robin silently stared at each other while robin reached the same conclusion that they had attained earlier. As Robin was about to break the silence, he heard the flapping of wings and noticed that coming down from the morning sky was an out of breath wyvern rider on an equally tired wyvern. The rider quickly scanned the group of men before him, and upon setting his eyes on the captain, quickly dismounted and ran to him while panting, "Captain, as you ordered I took your request to the duke as fast as my mounts wings could take me."

The captain noticing that the rider was alone, took on a sullen look as he dreaded the result of his request, "and you returning alone means that his lordship has decided that dispatching the riders I requested was a waste of his time?"

"Uhhh… well his lordship said he was… preoccupied with more pressing... matters," was all the flustered rider could manage to stammer out.

All the while the captain's face began to take on varying hues of red before settling on a bright red that matched his hair, hearing the last word made him pop in a quite spectacular fashion, "Preoccupied? He is Preoccupied, with what, cowering in his castle while his people die around him?" Flailing about in his rage, the captain took his helmet and vented his rage upon it by simply throwing it as hard as he could at one of the nearby burnt buildings, "I had hoped my father was simply exaggerating his tales of the last Crusade, but this seems pretty similar to him telling me of how the Plegian citizenry were burned out of their homes and slaughtered like cattle while the so called noble protectors of the kingdom cowered in their castles to scared or lazy to act. "

"Let me help," Robin said as he came to a decision.

The captain could not help but scowl at the hooded mage, "Don't bother, I'll go ask Grima for help, you don't need to do anything."

Suppressing a smirk at the irony of his statement, Robin focused back on the ruin around them, "Fine then, you go back to your Duke's castle and ask Grima; meanwhile, those knights will simply cross the border and this town can go unavenged, or you can come with me and make sure that they never are able to do this to another town." If anything, Robin wanted to see these knights for himself.

The captain looked around at the town slowly, then slowly nodded his acceptance, "fine, how do you think we can stop a full company with just a dozen men then?"

Robin couldn't help but smile as he thought back on all the times Chrom set him out on impossible tasks, "quite easily my friend, quite easily."

* * *

><p>As the sun slowly climbed higher into the sky towards midday, Captain Valen's and his patrol of wyvern riders found themselves doing what he thought was stupid at best. As he spurred his mount forward with a mage he had only just met, he pondered how he expected them to stop a full company of mounted men-at-arms and knights with just one mage and a dozen riders. Of course with the raiders moving slowly, getting ahead of them and laying an ambush would be a simple task; expecting them to make up a forty man difference in the opening of an ambush was ludicrous however.<p>

_I suppose I could just run in there and start pirouetting with my halberd and see if that works._ Chuckling to himself,Valens decided that he might as well break the silence and enlighten himself on what sort of plan he had gotten him and his men into, "So, this plan of yours, care to share it with me?"

Robin hated heights, he hated the vertigo he got from being on some of the higher works in castles and towers, he hated the heights of the palace upper floors, he certainly hated being several hundred feet above the ground on the back of a wyvern. With his eyes glued to back of the captain's back and the handles of the saddle gripped as firmly as possible, Robin feared to move his head for the possibility of seeing the ground and experiencing the usual nausea that would follow. Closing his eyes, he focused on the question at hand and did his best to steady his voice, "well, first we find them."

"And then," Valens continued, obviously expecting more.

"Then I observe, analyze, and plan more." Robin replied nonchalantly.

"Thats it," Valens replied in disbelief.

Robin sighed, "They are loaded down with multiple heavy carts as your scouts said, not only will this slow them down considerably, but as they enter the forests on the Ylissen side of the border, they will be forced to use only a few certain major trails and roads. Once we locate them, getting ahead of them and setting an initial ambush will be easily done, we target the leader and once he is gone either three things will happen. One, they mob together and push forward as a group down the narrow trails with their loot, and we simply fold back into woods and pick them off one by one until they are all buried. Two, they panic and scatter into the woods around them, we control the sky and can thus easily find them and pick off most of them, some will escape no doubt, but still a good outcome. Third, as we fold into the woods they attempt to give chase, if thats the case we simply lead them off into the woods and they will slowly spread out in the trees while we quickly regroup and pick apart the smaller disorganized groups one by one. Good enough?"

Not expecting this response, Valens was simply taken aback and somewhat impressed by the hooded mage's plan, "alright, so I was wrong about you, maybe you aren't as insane as I thought."

As the pair finished talking over the finer details of the plan, the lead rider signaled to the rest to land. As the dozen wyverns set down in the shrubbery of the plains, the lead rider quickly dismounted and jogged towards the captain and his passenger, "captain, were nearing the area I saw them last; given their pace I would venture a guess that they are about ten miles ahead of us. Probably just now entering the western edge of the woods that run along the border."

The captain nodded, "good, tell the others to take a rest before we take to the sky again." At this the scout nodded and quickly left the two, "So, if your prediction that they will be using the Velson trail to escape is correct, then getting ahead of them and setting an ambush should not be difficult at all then."

Robin nodded at the captain's appraisal, "Unless they dragged their loot this far to simply abandon it halfway home and melt into the woods, they only have one path they can take home at this point."

Hearing this, the captain gestured to two of his men to join them, "gentlemen, I am in need of some scouting, take to the sky and locate the company you found earlier as discretely as possible; once you find them hurry back and report in."

"Yes captain." the two replied before they hurried to their respective wyverns and took off.

Valens watched the two take off and fade into the distance as they set out to complete their task, once out of sight he lazily sat down against his wyvern, "you may want to get comfortable," Yawning as he shifted into a comfortable position, "we could be here for a little bit."

Robin being no stranger to battle, knew that fighting or preparing to fight were not the number one time occupiers of soldiers, but rather the waiting. Finding a comfortable spot, he propped himself up against a tree and for the first time in over a few days, fell asleep.

* * *

><p>Robin's eyes fluttered open. Looking around he found himself walking in the familiar halls of the Palace of Ylissetol. Passing through the archway leading to the throne, he saw Chrom standing over a table with all their maps and plans draped over it. As Robin got closer, Chrom eventually looked up and frowned at him; as Robin reached the table Chrom walked around it until they were face to face, "So it was a lie all this time, you were just using me and the others as a joke!"<p>

Caught off guard by Chrom's outburst, Robin could only sputter in response, "Wha- no, it wasn't! I don't know what you are talking about."

Hearing this only made Chrom angrier, "Don't know! How could you not know, what kind of fool doesn't know who they are?" Chrom then began chuckling, "I guess the same kind of fool that would believe a crock story about a god with amnesia."

As Chrom began to approach Robin and draw his sword, the tactician began to backpedal away from him towards the door, "Chrom, you have to believe me, I didn't do this, I never knew!"

His anger returned, Chrom quickened his pace towards Robin, "You could of prevented it all, all those people dead in the Plegian raids, and those lost in the following war." Stopping for a moment Chrom closed his eyes, "Emmeryn, struck down in cold blood by one of your assassins."

Robin suddenly hit something behind him, looking back he saw that the doorway he came through was now simply a solid brick wall, "Chrom, I couldn't have prevented any of that, I-"

"LIES," shouted Chrom, "you could of easily done so, you just didn't want to. Why would you care, we were simply a means to an end for you, tools to be used and discarded after you were done with us. Well, you won't succeed, I'll make sure of that."

As Chrom quickly raised the Falchion and lunged towards him, Robin instinctively rushed forward with magic building in his hand, before he knew what had happened, Robin saw Chrom gripping Falchion with one and a gaping hole in his chest with another as he staggered back from Robin before finally collapsing.

Robin stood there, not knowing what to do or what to say he simply froze in place. As he stood there, he started to hear laughter, the laughter of a child to be precise, an eleven year old he knew by the voice of it. Realizing the source was getting louder and closer, Robin felt dread start to spike throughout him as he realized in but a few moments she would enter the room and see his deed.

"Robin, you're back!" spinning around, Robin saw that the doorway turned wall had now reverted back to a doorway, except now it also held the eleven year old princess in its passage.

Lucina smiled at him and began to walk towards him to welcome him home until she stopped and an inquisitive look creased her face, "Where is father, didn't he come back with you."

Almost as if his torment was scripted, Robin watched as Lucina's eyes widened as she saw her father's corpse behind Robin; "Father," she yelled as she ran by robin and tried to pick up Chrom's body. Looking back at Robin, she noticed the blood on his hands, "You... you did this, how could you?" she said with tears in her eyes, "You were our family."

As Lucina began to rip into Robin with her words, he shrunk away as he withered under the weight of the guilt her voice thrust upon him. As she bore into him with hate and malice, Robin felt as if the world was upon his back and crushing his very being while grinding it into dust. As he began to hear Validar's signature cackling around him, the room and its contents began to spin and spin until it all blurred together and finally went black.

* * *

><p>Robin awoke to a feeling of dampness, after regaining his bearings he realized that he had been sweating quite a bit during his sleep, "you alright, you look as though every pore in your body emptied water while you slept?"<p>

Looking up, Robin noticed that Captain Valens was standing over him holding a piece of bread, "Scouts are back, you were on the money; we are getting ready to take off so eat while we walk."

Valens paused as he recalled the mage's earlier nausea during the first flight that morning, "though if you can wait till we land, that might be for the best. My wyvern and I would probably not be appreciative of you vomiting half eaten bread on us mid-flight."

Robin nodded at the smiling knight as he pocketed the bread and walked with him to his wyvern. Before he knew it the flight was in the air moving to head around the knights and get ahead of them on the trail. As Robin began to feel the nausea from before return, he shut his eyes in an attempt to combat it. Once closed though, all he could see were images from his dreams, of Chrom's anger and death, and Lucina's tear stricken face screaming at him. Eventually he left his eyes open, deciding that nausea was indeed the lesser torment.

Looking back at his passenger, Valens noted that he had never seen anyone with such an adverse reaction to heights, "I have to say, you really don't enjoy heights, do you?"

"No, I really, really don't enjoy heights." Robin felt somewhat frustrated by this, "I wasn't always like this."

Valens raised an eyebrow at this, "You learned to be afraid of heights? usually its the other way around in that regard. I take it there is a reason though."

With a frown Robin recalled the memory, "I actually took a fall from a pegasus, we were in an air battle and I got knocked from my partner's mount." Closing his eyes, Robin recalled the second battle of Themis during the first war with Plegia; in which he rode with Cordelia and her Pegasus Knights and was knocked from her Horse during the skirmish with Plegia's Wyvern Knights, "She was able to descend and catch me, but falling like that really left an impression and ever since then flying has terrified me."

Valens nodded, "Fair enough, I always liked wyverns better than Pegasi, much harder to fall off of."

Robin chuckled, "They have their ups, but I have never had a Pegasus try to eat me... at least not yet."

* * *

><p>As Robin scoped out the location of the impending ambush, he noticed the scout Valens sent towards the Knights running towards them while signaling that they had about 15 minutes before the knights would arrive, "So this is it then, are your men ready?"<p>

Valens was busy examining his weapons and armor prior to the fight, "As can be, how about you?"

Smiling Robin reached into his coat to pull his sword, though his smile quickly turned into a grimace as his hand grasped an empty sheath. Cursing himself Robin realized that he had lost his sword at the table and left it there after...

"Valens noticing the mage fumble through his coat, knowingly walked towards his wyvern, "Forgot your weapon I see, no matter. We have a few spares on hand, its ludicrous how fast these things break. Got a preference, we have a few swords and a halberd or two."

"The sword will work." the sword he lost was a gift from Chrom, part of him wanted to return to the table and retrieve it, part of him wished nothing more than to pretend that place did not exist and never return.

As Valens walked into the woods to await the signal, Robin pushed these thoughts from his mind as he leaned against a tree to wait. Not long after, he began to hear the unmistakeable sound of horse hoofs pounding on hard dirt and carriage wheels grinding into it behind them; while it was soft at first, the noise slowly built and built until Robin opened his eyes and saw the company round the turn. As Robin looked at them any hope of them not being the culprits vanished, he could easily see they were covered in spots of soot, ash , and blood, while he could also hear some of them laughing and joking about their recent deeds of 'glory' amongst one another as they brazenly towed the final bit of damning proof with them.

Upon seeing Robin, the first of the mounted men halted and looked back towards what Robin presumed was their commander; once the the man in question took note of what he saw before him he began gesturing to several of the knights and giving orders to those around him. Robin knew he was definitely the commander at this point.

As the company of knights apprehensively halted, two of its members started to cautiously trot towards Robin with blades drawn. As they approached Robin, they noticed the markings upon his coat and simultaneously adopted cruel sneers as one turned back to the others, "hey everyone, I think we have a lost Grima-worshipper here." The two knights snickered as they got closer, "Is that right? Are you a lost little Grimleal?" Then they both took on dark looks as they glared at Robin, "we can be sure to make certain you go home."

As these two knights approached him, Robin felt heat build within him as he fumed over how these men who were members of the Ylissen army, the army he had rebuilt, carried themselves like animals. How they had loosed themselves upon an innocent village the moment they were without supervision and sullied the colors they wore. The anger built and built as they approached him and readied their blades for an unwarranted strike. Until finally the anger made Robin snap, Robin began to chuckle, not his usual lighthearted chuckle, but a deep sinister laugh that made the two knights freeze as they neared him.

Then it happened in an instant, the the two men noticed a purple aura start to emanate from the man before them; his arm shot up faster then they could follow and before they could even move a purple glowing orb the size of a melon shot from his hand. While it passed between the two men, the force of its passing knocked both of them and their mounts to the ground while its intended target, their leader, stared in shock for a moment before being hit squarely in the chest by it. With a loud crack, the orb exploded in the center of the company of knights throwing men and mount clear of the blast. While most of the men survived the impact, their leader was no longer able to rein in the ensuing chaos.

As men who were tossed about by the spell slowly stood up and staggered about as the concussion from the explosion wore off, one of the knights who had not been near the the blast wordlessly screamed as he charged the mage who had just assaulted them. With his vision narrowed and mind clouded with rage, the charging knight failed to notice the mage smirk at him, or the shouts of his compatriots behind him, or most importantly, the shadow growing around him. Just as he realized his fellows were shouting warnings to him, he saw the shadow over him; as he noticed this though, he felt a burning pain in his shoulders as something sharp dug into him and tore him from his mount. After being carried for a good twenty feet in the air whilst shrieking in agony, he was finally released so as to plummet to the ground below.

Witnessing the arrival of several wyvern knights who were now circling the party and striking at them, cries of ambush rose from the surviving members of the company; moments later Plegian soldiers appeared from the trees flanking the road throwing javelins, spears, and axes into the crowd of knights as they frantically tried to block their aggressors attacks. The remaining sergeants in the company at this point rallied their men and started heading off into the trees around the road to try and rout the attacker as Robin suspected they would; the Plegians seeing this, simply pulled back into the trees with ease as their pursuers slowly got deeper into the woods and quickly spread out amongst the trees. Valens seeing that the knights had ventured into the woods and spread out, signaled his riders to prepare to attack , their combined hovering being the signal to those on the ground to prepare their own strike.

Noticing shadows flitting above the trees, the knights quickly halted their pursuit of one of the ambushers and began tossing their own javelins into the air in an attempt to ward off the wyverns; before, the wyverns were forced to fly high above the crowd to avoid such missiles as the open road offered no obstacle; but with the trees between them and the knights below, they could easily dodge what few attacks made it through the thick branches and foilage. For the knights though, the thicket was insufficient to prevent the wyverns from simply crashing through the trees and crushing those they landed on, after which they would simply spring off the ground and fly back above the trees before anyone could react and try to strike back at them.

One by one the knights watched their members be carried off or crushed by the wyverns above while javelins and axes still came from the trees around them, until finally their numbers were thinned to the point that Robin and the Plegians on foot with him came out from the trees striking towards the outer edges of the enemy mob. As the riders above continuously swooped down and disrupted the Ylissens each time they began to regroup, Robin soon found himself in the melee that had risen between the two sides.

His blade crashing against that of the knight before him, Robin and his opponent traded several blows as they ducked and weaved to avoid their opposite's strikes while trying to land their own. The knight finally attempted to split Robin's head with a heavy downward blow from his sword; sidestepping to avoid the blow, Robin saw his opening. Before the knight could recover from his swing, Robin slammed his foot against his opponent's shoulder, sending the knight flailing backwards and colliding into the ground with Robin following quickly for the coup de grace as he jammed his sword into the knights exposed neck and severing it before he could react.

As Robin retracted his sword, he quickly surveyed the field around him. The Plegians seemed to have achieved the upper hand in the fighting; the Ylissens were now in total panic and being quickly cut down one after another by the footmen they faced. Every time a handful of Ylissens would try to present a solid front to the plegians, Valens and his riders would quickly descend from above shattering the trees around them and the unfortunate men below them. The Ylissens were quickly falling all around him and soon only Robin and the Plegian soldiers were standing as bodies of the Ylissen knights littered the floor around them.

As Robin stood there examining the remains of the battlefield, he noticed that the Plegians, satisfied with their work, were heading back towards the road to regroup. Taking one final look at the battlefield, Robin spun around and began to walk towards the road as well; rounding a tree he heard a rustle next to him, reflexes kicking in, Robin quickly ducked and rolled as a blade passed through the space his head once occupied.

His attacker however was ready to continue despite his opening's failure, he brought his arm back and struck Robin in the head with his pommel, sending robin forward into the dirt. Rolling over as his vision swam, Robin took sight of his enemy as he prepared a spell to try and counter the man. Locking eyes with one another, the man before Robin froze as Robin's hood had fallen and he saw his hate filled red eyes meet his own. Not expecting the sight before him, the man hesitated long enough for robin to quickly launch a spell into his chest knocking him back a few feet and staggering him. Seeing the fight from above, Valens quickly descended and landed between Robin and his assailant as the knight stumbled backwards. While jabbing at the man with his halberd, Valens had his Wyvern snap at him with its fangs while attempting to sweep him off his feet with its tail. Under assualt from so many different angles at once, the swordsman's defence quickly began to crumble until he was finally caught by the wyverns tail and knocked to the ground; not missing a beat, Valens quickly followed with his halberd and stabbed the man squarely in the chest, retracting it as he crumpled to the ground in a bloody heap.

With his duel won and the threat subsided, Valens turned towards the red eyed mage with a frown, "I wondered why you kept your hood up the entire time." Dismounting from his wyvern, Valens slowly walked towards Robin, "but you helped us bring a little justice into the world," he said as he bent low and offered Robin his hand, "and for that you have my thanks regardless of what your eye color is." Robin smiled as he accepted the hand and got up from the ground. "So," Valens began with an inquisitive look, "I do have to ask who you are though?"

Robin simply frowned at the question, "You wouldn't believe me regardless, so the answer is pointless." He said dismissively.

Valens was not easily dissuaded, "Try me, I've spent some time around Plegian mages, you get used to the strange and mysterious with that bunch."

"Very well," he said with a sigh, "I was the one you were going to go ask for help originally."

Valens blinked in confusion for a moment; recalling the conversation the two held in the town, the realization dawned on him as his eyes widened and jaw went slightly slack at the claim he thought he just heard.

Grima had returned.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:Big chapter, hope it looks good and you guys have fun with it. Please leave your thoughts and suggestions so that I can continue to improve. Also, please leave a comment on how you thought the fight went; a lot of this is stuff I am trying out for the first time so I am interested in your thoughts on that scene especially.<strong>

**Also wanted to address some things you guys brought up.**

**Dane Namor: I always thought the fate bit was present regardless of Lucina's intervention, Validar ascribed to the belief that events were fixed and already decided(in his favor), while Robin and Chrom felt that with enough will you could do anything. Basically I see Awakening having a theme of External locus of control versus internal locus of control be one of its main points.**

**SuperPanda900: was chapter two inspired by that picture? No, did I recall it while writing it and see the parallel, yes.**

**Reaver Artorias: while villains being evil for the sake of evil can work in writing, it usually is because they are unhinged(the joker from batman would be an excellent example of this in my opinion). Validar never came off to me as unhinged so I wanted to give him some focus and reasoning for his actions that would fit with the story and make him a bit more believable.**

**Reynard: sort of, you are correct in that Robin and Grima are the same person and that their difference is not one of being different people, but rather the differing results one person achieves when events and choices around them change. Altered time-line Robin and Grima are simply the same person, but with differing choices that result in wholly different outcomes. Exploring this is very interesting and part of the reason I chose this as my first story.**

**Anyways, happy reading and see you all next time.**


	5. Chapter 5

Valens opened his mouth, but he was unable to produce anything other than a stupid look as he tried to process the claim he thought he had just heard before him. With Robin simply standing there staring back at him with a blank look, Valens managed to finally do more than just simply open his mouth in silence, "Do you mean to say… that you… as in yourself, is Grima, as in the Obsidian Dragon?"

Robin simply rolled his eyes, "Yes, that is exactly what I mean to say." Robin began to shift uncomfortably as he felt the stares from the all the soldiers around him, "Is there something on my face, or all you all quite done?"

One of the soldiers piped up, "Aren't you supposed to be a dragon?"

"A really big dragon," added another.

Robin simply returned the stares with his own red eyed glare before responding, "Yes, though I would rather not attract the amount of attention that a really big dragon would." Robin left out the part about him not knowing how he would even begin to "be" a dragon, let alone if he even had a desire to at this point.

Valens' brow furrowed, he looked at Robin, then looked off in thought; finally he came to a decision, "I frankly find your claim hard to swallow," looking back at Robin he adopted a frown, "at best." Valens then sighed, "But it is readily apparent you are definitely out of the ordinary, and if were to run into Grima in human form, I suppose he could look like you."

Robin frowned, "I suppose I'll take that as a compliment."

"Take it as whatever you want," the captain shot back, "regardless of all this, you need to come with me back to Vanderbaum Fortress."

"And why would I need to go with you to any place, much less this Vanderbaum?" Robin icily replied.

"There is a college of dark mages there, while most were at the battle at the Table and subsequently perished in the fighting," Valens continued while frowning upon his thoughts of the battle, "the senior sages are still present and can hopefully shed light on your claim," closing his eyes, Valens frown however began to change to that of the look one got from eating a bad oyster, "I also need to report this to the duke," spitting out the last word with particular venom.

"I suspect I would rather not," Robin said as he thought back on all the stuck up nobles he had to deal with in his career, "he sounds like the type of noble I have had to deal with far too much; and to be blunt, I ran out of patience for his kind long ago."

"You have to understand that I can't just let you go after that kind of claim; if you're lying it has to be dealt with, if it is true," Valens took on a worried look, "I don't know what then."

Robin closed his eyes in thought for a moment; tossing around the events of the last few days: the events of the table, the discovery of the truth, and the revelation of what Ylisse was capable of without him or Chrom there to control them, this all resulted in him coming to the conclusion that the Ylissens were likely to reignite the crusade thanks to his actions at the Table. Robin frowned at the implication that he was responsible for this; by losing control of the situation he had caused Chrom's death and effectively his own in the eyes of Ylisse, thus causing innocent people to be slaughtered with undoubtedly with more to follow. With a forlorn look, Robin realized that the only way to prevent all of this would be to oppose Ylisse and ensure they were unable to enact their bloody plan, at least until Lucina could hopefully gain control and bring them into line or he could contain them somehow.

Opening his eyes, Robin turned to Valens, "Fine, I will see your duke and mages."

* * *

><p>While Robin found himself atop a wyvern once more, his mind was fortunately elsewhere and he avoided the nausea he normally received this high up. Instead his thoughts were on Ylisse and Lucina; in short, he was worried. While he knew that as long as Frederick drew breath that Lucina's personal safety was all but guaranteed, he also knew that she was barely twelve and that there would be regency in her stead for the next four years. This worried him immensely as Robin knew the nobles of Ylisse; while there were a handful of honorable men such as the duke of Themis, most were wolves who would not hesitate at this chance to enrich themselves at the expense of the Halidom and its people. He also knew from his encounters with them that Chrom was not far off with his remark that most were of the disposition Cornelius was in regards to Plegia and would jump at any opportunity to enact total war against Plegia once more.<p>

With his mind occupied, Robin found himself at their destination and dismounting before he knew it.

"So welcome to Vanderbaum," Valens said as he flourished his arms, "follow me, we should go see the duke sooner rather than later."

Walking with Valens as he was motioned to follow him; Robin took note of the other soldiers dismounting and tending to their wyverns, while others assisted the wounded as they awaited medics to arrive. Matching Valens brisk pace, Robin took in the sight of the brown fortress looming above him and the surrounding flatlands. Finding one of the castle's banners, Robin quickly deduced that this was not of any Plegian he knew of, so he figured that it was either a newly raised duke or simply a relatively unknown one. Either way, they soon entered the castle's main door and quickly pushed their way past the servants crowding the hall before finally coming to a halt in a small waiting room adjacent to the duke's court.

Valens turned to Robin, "wait here while I speak with the duke, I'll get you in a moment." With that Valens turned back and entered the opened the door and passed through, leaving Robin to himself. Sitting back on one of the benches in the room, Robin ignored the stares he was getting from the guards as he closed his eyes and began to gather his focus. Thinking back, Robin recalled Gaius telling him that while guards usually don't take kindly to when you shove your head next to a door to try and hear what is on the other side of it, it is never necessary to get that close. All one needs is a pair of good ears and some practice and you can listen in so well you might as well be in the room anyways.

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><p>With the guards and servants hovering around the duke clearing a passage, Valens quickly approached what was certainly the most gaudily dressed man in the room. Taking note of the duke's attire for the day, Valens consented that while his clothing was fortunately not appalling by itself for once, his rotund belly and grubby face easily made up for that regardless of what he wore.<p>

Finally noticing the captain approaching him, the duke silenced his advisors around him and began to glare down the captain before finally snapping at him, "Where have you been, I gave strict orders that you were to return to the castle immediately, did you not receive your own man's message?"

Sighing internally, Valens began his assuredly futile counter, "My lord, my men and I only took a short detour to run down the raiders we had trac-"

"YOU DID WHAT, I SAID TO RETURN TO THE FORTRESS, NOT RUN DOWN YLISSEN RAIDERS!" with his face quickly reddening, the duke slammed the table before him with his fists, "BAH, useless soldiers, can none of you follow simple orders; captain, must I accompany you everywhere you go so that I can explain exactly what I want you to do?"

Valens barely suppressed a snicker at the thought of the duke following him into battle to face the Ylissens, "My lord, I simply took the initiative to end the raiders that have been plaguing the area and I acted on it."

Valens vainly hoped that the duke would calm down somewhat over the course of his explanation, unfortunately(but not surprisingly) the only effect his explanation had was to simply color the dukes face several varying shades of red and purple until he finally exploded.

"If I wanted you to run down those raiders I would have ordered you to do so! What I wanted you to do was return to the fortress immediately! What would have happened if the Ylissens attacked and took the fortress while you were romping about the countryside, eh, what then?"

Valens couldn't help but roll his eyes at the absurdity of this argument, "my lord, while I appreciate your confidence in the ability of myself and the men I was with, if the Ylissens had somehow arrived with sufficient forces to overrun the entire fortress in the course of twelve hours I am afraid that only having Grima himself atop the wall would change the outcome."

Unsurprisingly, the duke didn't appreciate the captain's cheeky response and quickly launched into another barrage of curses and insults at him and his incompetence. While Valens tuned out the somewhat comical sight of the short, chunky duke flailing about and screaming at him, he looked back at the door he came through, and then forward again. Reaching a decision, Valens simply spun on his heel and walked towards the door.

Coming out of his tantrum momentarily to draw breath before continuing, the duke noticed that the captain had not only been ignoring him, but was now even leaving the room without his leave to do so, "Where are you going, you don't leave until I tell you that you can!" screamed the duke. Valens for his part simply paid no heed and kept walking, thus causing the duke's eye to start twitching in response to the blatant insubordination, "GUARDS! STOP HIM!"

While Valens didn't care what the duke said or did at this point, he did take into account the two guardsmen that were now standing between him and the door. "Move", Valens said with all the cold fury he could muster.

At this the two guards looked at Valens, and back at the fuming duke as they tried to determine which person they would rather anger at this point. They quickly came to the conclusion that while pulling latrine duty for the next month might be undesirable, having arms that were broken was even more so; thus they quickly cleared a path for the captain while shrinking under the duke's fuming gaze.

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><p>Robin found himself sprinting to catch the captain. While he gathered from his prior allusions to the duke that calling him unpleasant was light, he did not expect Valens to simply just exit the room and silently walk away towards the stables and presumably his wyvern.<p>

Finally catching up to the man, Robin decided that they were far enough to where he could safely press him as to what happened, "I take it you decided to not tell him about me; as much as I enjoy spending time with his kind, I am curious to your reasoning."

Valens scoffed, "Is it not obvious? I am done here; I am fed up with sitting here and putting up with men like him as the entire country burns around us. As to you, he would either think you are a madman or some sort of plotter and try to have you executed, at which point I suspect you will simply burn the place down and him with it."

Valens kneaded his head to try and soothe the headache he currently had, "while seeing him set on fire may actually make me smile, I would rather not see the place and everyone with it get dragged with him."

Robin looked at him inquisitively, "So I take it you won't mind if I take my leave then?"

"No, but one condition though," Valens paused, unsure of his next statement, "let me go with you."

Robin stopped, struck dumb by the request he did not see coming, "but why? You said it yourself you don't know whether I am full of it or not." Robin managed to sputter out.

Valens took on a despondent look, "Can't you see, all I do here is take orders from those who couldn't care whether the country burns down or not. I am either stuck in forts protecting cowardly lords who are too scared of their own shadow to venture out and do something about the chaos all around them or going on patrols where all I do is observe the aftermath and loathe myself for being unable to do more." Valens sighed and looked down at his feet as his voice took on a quiet tone, "yesterday was the first time since the end of the Mad King's war that I actually felt good about myself and what I was doing. I don't know whether you are Grima or not, but frankly, I don't give a damn whether you're Naga, Grima, or the bloody wyvern fairy. All I know is that you seem to care what happens here and you have a chance to actually do something about it."

As Robin stood silently and listened to Valens frantically explain his reasoning, Valens eventually finished and simply looked at him while silently pleading to come along. Robin simply nodded his head, "I will tell you that despite what you think, I am not really sure what to do. I have my memory of the past twenty years, but I have no clue what being Grima actually means; Validar said I had great power and ability, but he neglected to explain much beyond that. All I know is that one of the things he did was remove the curse that limited me before, but I don't think simply being able to throw a bigger fireball will really help resolve Plegia's issues." At this Robin took on a sullen look, "And I really don't know where to look for answers."

"Wait," hearing the last bit Valens sprung to life with enough force to jolt Robin as well, "Wouldn't the Grimleal know?"

"Aren't they all dead or scattered right now?" Robin quipped back. He was almost positive that Validar had gathered all the senior Grimleal at the table and they were either killed or scattered.

Valens however lost no steam at this, "So what if you can't ask them, they are mages, mages write down everything. They probably have a library somewhere, probably at the Dragon's Table if I had to guess."

Robin flinched at the implication of having to go back to the table, but he couldn't argue the logic; the answers he needed about himself would most likely be there, if anywhere at all. Robin shuddered at what he would have to do, "Then I guess the Table is the place to look."

Valens lit up immediately while simultaneously grabbing Robin's arm and nearly pulling it from his socket as he began dragging him to the stable, "EXCELLENT! Then let us go immediately."

"Damn it, my arm man, my arm, let go!" Robin shouted as the Captain dragged him to his Wyvern in excitement at the prospect of having purpose once more.

Bursting through the stable door, all the Wyverns within lazily looked up at the two men disturbing their rest; most letting their heads fall once they determined it was nothing worth their time, while a single wyvern kept its head up and awaited its rider.

Upon reaching said wyvern, Valens finally released Robin from his grasp as he quickly set about the task of readying his mount while Robin rubbed his sore arm. Looking back at Robin, Valens noticed his arm and flushed in embarrassment, "uhhh, sorry about that, I got a little carried away."

Satisfied with his arm, Robin looked to the captain with a glare, "Just try to not rip my arm off next time, I prefer keeping my body parts together thank you." Robin began to chuckle slightly, "It's alright though, let us just set off though, I think I can hear shouting outside; your duke may of finally threatened the men enough to come collect you."

Perking his ears up, Valens closed his eyes and listened, "that does sound like his high pitched wail in the distance." With that Valens hopped upon his saddle, and grabbed Robin by the collar as in order to hoist him aboard, "no time to lose then, get on."

"Wait I can do it myse-mmmph," Robin blurted out as Valens dragged him aboard and pushed his mount to take off. Scanning the ground, Valens eventually made out the jumping figure of an overweight, gaudily dressed man in the distance. Figuring it was the duke; Valens gifted him the bird as he flew off into the distance.

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><p>Hopping off the wyvern, Robin sullenly surveyed the tower that was before the two men. While the dread had been building up for the past hour as the tower appeared on the horizon and grew in size as they approached it. Robin was still unprepared for what he felt standing beneath its ominous gaze once more.<p>

"Eerie isn't it," Valens said quietly as he slowly looked around, "it has only been barely a week and you can't even tell a battle was fought here. The sand has already swallowed everything up."

Robin nodded in silence as he stared up at the dark structure looming over the two of them.

"Have you ever been here before?" Valens asked.

Robin thought of saying no, but he decided it really didn't matter anymore, "Unfortunately yes, though I wish I could say otherwise."

"I don't blame you for the sentiment," Valens responded as he nodded in agreement, "Well, the sooner we head in, the sooner we can find those answers."

"Yeah, and the sooner we can leave," Robin quipped back at the man.

With that the pair slowly made their way towards the bleak structure before them, unaware of what waited within its dark halls.

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><p><strong>AN: With the Weekend comes another chapter, hope you all enjoy it. Do please leave your thoughts in a review, reviews help me improve as a writer and make a better story(which results in you getting to read a better story).<strong>

**with that I now get to address reviews(a surprisingly fun part)**

**Reaver Artorias: sort of, but keep in mind there isn't much left to control in terms of a Plegian army(hint hint nudge nudge)**

**Reynard: Yeah, he really is fanfic fuel, it is a little suprising there is so little in terms of stories on him. As far as recognizing Robin goes, I put some serious thought into that. At the end I came out with the thought that while Robin is probably famous as an individual, there really isn't a way for people to know what he looks like beyond simply "a white guy with purple hair", while certainly unique as far as I can tell in the setting, it doesn't mean that if you see a white guy with purple hair it must be Robin of Ylisse. So outside of Royalty, people aren't going to recognize famous persons on sight(and they only know royalty because its usually heavily propogated on things such as coinage).  
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**True Hyper Sonic: correct, call it rebirth, reincarnated, ressurected, or whatever; the end result is that Robin is Grima. That doesn't mean that the moment he finds out he concludes that all humans must die, it is his the trauma of his life that pushes him slowly to that conclusion, and even then his old life bleeds through as he still is Robin(only with a different perspective now).**

**edit: tweaked a couple bits for fun**


	6. Chapter 6

The great wooden doors to the temple slowly creaked open as two men and a wyvern struggled to pass through it and then shut it against the sand whipping at them from outside. Pushing hard against the door, the two men seemed to barely keep the door in place as the wind pushed hard against them and their efforts to seal it once more. The wyvern behind them seeing this, raised one of its man sized arms and lightly pushed against the great door before it; the two men, unaware of the wyvern's action, were tightly gripping the door attempting to close it as it suddenly lurched forward, dragging them across the ground until it slammed shut and they slammed into it immediately after.

As Robin and Valens lay sprawled against the door, Robin slowly stood up and began to dust the sand off of him as he looked around, "still as dark and depressing as when I left it last."

Valens slowly began to pull himself up from the ground as his body ached from being flung around, "As cheery a place as always, and you weren't wrong with the dark part either." Valens slowly crept through the nearly pitch black room until he had finally located his wyvern and the bags on its saddle. After a moment of searching, Valens finally produced an unlit torch from the bag and held it up.

Robin looked at the somewhat comical sight of Valens holding an unlit torch aloft as if it were lit, "I think you forgot to light it there."

Valens simply ignored the quip. As Robin stood there wondering what they were waiting for, he noticed the ground shake a little as the wyvern with them lifted its head towards the unlit torch and proceed to suck in air. Confused as to what was happening, Robin began to feel the room heat up and his eyes widen at the sight of the wyverns black belly glow red, until it finally ceased inhaling air and spit out a jet of fire.

Once the wyvern ceased, Valens lowered the now lit torch and smiled in satisfaction, "thank you my dear, as helpful as always." He then smirked at Robin, "Now show me a Pegasus that can do that!"

"A fire breathing wyvern, I thought the fire breathing reds died of blight centuries ago." Robin said as he and Valens began to move out of the entry hall towards the inner portions of the temple.

Valens nodded at the statement, "very true, red wyverns were the most well-known fire-breathers and they mostly died off during a particularly nasty bout of wingrot in wyvern valley. That being said, Plegia has always had an affinity for wyverns and some red wyverns were brought over prior to the die out and mixed into our own population."

Robins eyebrows shot up, "Wait, so Plegian wyverns can all breath fire!"

"No," Valens quickly interjected, "We only brought over a few apparently, so they are still quite rare; though not for lack of trying to breed them into the population heavily."

Robin turned a thoughtful eye towards the wyvern as they proceeded further into the temple, "so if they are so rare, how did you get one?"

Valens chuckled, "same way a pegasi rider gets their own mount, the entire wyvern corps spends their apprenticeship at wyvern rock. Much like how the Ylissen Pegasi knights spend their initial days training at the Elysian fields. Part of that initial training is determining which riders pair well with which wyverns." Valens then turned to his wyvern, "I guess you can say that Alice and I were made for each other, right Alice?"

At this Alice lazily nodded.

Valens slowly looked around the hall they were currently in as his torch flickered. With the torch as the only source of light, the three of them were treated to an eerie show as the flickering light danced about the room. As the hall stretched on and the trio continued along its length, they continuously passed by the many runes and statues that decorated the hall as the light they cast made the statues' shadows dance in union with their marching. Stopping to inspect one of the statues, he examined a miniature statue of a dragon. While he had been in temples before and had noticed they almost all had a roughly similar depiction of Grima in them: six eyes, four wings, and an extremely long narrow body. The statues lining the halls and adorning the chambers all seemed different from the norm. While the six-eyed runes were still prevalent, there were none of the typical statues of Grima present, and with how common this statue was Valens guessed that it was probably Grima as well since he knew of no other famous dragon save Naga.

Suddenly something grasped Valens' shoulder causing him to startle, "sorry," turning back Valens saw that Robin had come up behind him, "I just wanted to see what you were looking at."

"Right, I guess this place has me feeling on edge," as Valens gestured to the room the hall they were in. "I do have a question though, is that you?"

Looking at the statue Valens pointed it, Robin could tell it was a Dragon, but unlike the usual ones of Grima he saw, "I don't know."

Valens looked at him with an incredulous look, "How can you not know what you look like?"

Robin matched his look, "For the same reason we are in this dark, gloomy temple that I would have preferred to not come back to. I simply don't remember."

Robin took another, harder look at the statue. He took note of the differences to the usual statues of Grima he saw: it had two wings and regular appendages, its body was much more balanced and in normal proportions(as far as he could tell anyways) and it only had two red eyes as opposed to the usual six. What struck Robin odd most of all, was the odd feeling he was getting while looking at it. All the other times he had looked at the much more _exotic_ depictions of Grima, Robin felt nothing save curiosity and wonder. Now however, he felt as though he were looking at a mirror, or as if he were looking at himself from above, and most interestingly of all, familiarity.

Robin frowned as he finished scanning the statue, "It does look familiar though, almost as if I were looking at myself in a mirror."

Valens began pointing at the other copies of the statue in the hall, "I thought it had to be, this place is littered with this statue. Who else could it be but Grima? Er… you I mean?" Valens finished bashfully.

Ignoring the other's stammering comment; Robin turned from the statue and continued down the hallway. As they made their way amidst the statues and their unbroken gaze, Robin started to feel an uneasy familiarity with his surroundings as his feet started brushing against rubble and a gaping hole in the hallway wall loomed over them.

As Robin began to silently dread where he was, he could hear Valens stumble amongst the rubble strewn at his feet. Finally finding stable footing amongst the rubble, Valens raised his torch to better illuminate the scene, "Impressive, someone really did a number on this hall and the room adjacent to it."

Quickly clambering over a pile of rubble, Valens crawled into the room adjacent to the hallway. As he stood back up, Valens started as he heard his boot crunch on something beneath him. Examining his heel, Valens saw that the ground he was littered with shards of glass and scorch marks leading up to the now collapsed wall. Following the scorched ground and trail of broken glass, Valens eventually came up to what he could only surmise was the source of the blast. Looking around himself, Valens noticed that his hooded friend had followed him in and was standing over an ominously large pool of dried blood on the floor near him.

As Valens sifted through the glass and rubble, Robin found himself slowly drifting towards the familiar red stain in the back of the room. While his mind wailed in terror as it grew larger and larger, his legs moved of their own will towards the mark until he loomed directly over the stain and his mind went blank. While all but the stain was now gone, Robin's memory easily filled in the missing pieces, and soon enough he was gazing upon Chrom's twitching body on the floor. He didn't cry, he didn't wail, he didn't drop to the floor, Robin simply stood there and lamented his failure. They had gone so far in the name of a better tomorrow, and while Robin had no children of his own, those of his family, the Shepherds, might as well of been his own flesh and blood as far as he was concerned. Here however, when it all was supposed to come together, he failed them and destroyed their present and future as opposed to saving it.

As Robin stood their stewing in his own self-loathing, he felt something lightly grasp his shoulder and turned to see Valens with a strangely understanding face, "you alright there? You have been staring at that bloodstain for a fair bit now." Valens gestured to the room around them, "I take it you were here when this all happened."

Robin simply turned back to the stain, "Yeah, I was here, I caused all this. It is my fault."

Valens grew silent at his response, standing beside him as he thought over his words. As Valens mind churned at his thoughts, his face eventually darkened as he came to an unexpected conclusion, "what happened here?"

Robin bent low and brushed his hand against the cold blood stained stone, "I can still see it all play out before me; it is like I am standing here right when it all happened." Robin snorted, "if only it were so, I could then change what happened, correct my mistake."

Valens simply silently looked on as Robin seemingly talked into the darkness.

"This is where I rendered the last thirteen years as meaningless and wasted. We were so close to that better tomorrow, but Validar removed the spell that suppressed who I am. At first I thought that Chrom was about to attack me, but that wasn't the case. I saw the brand on his shoulder, a mark I instinctively hate for an unclear reason, and I killed him. I murdered my brother in cold blood, and in so doing awakened the monster within Ylisse and burned the very future I had set out to save."

Valens stood there as he listened to every word, once Robin had ceased, Valens simply stood there mulling over his words. As he processed every word, he furrowed his brow in thought, and as the words sank in his eyes began to widen at the realization he just reached, "wait! You said Chrom, with a brand on his shoulder. You mean the Ylissen Exalt?!"

Robin's head snapped up and back onto Valens as he realized what he had just let slip; Robin simply dropped his head seeing that there really wasn't a way back now that he had mentioned Chrom, "Yes, the one and only. Here is where we fought Validar for the Fire Emblem, here is where we lost."

"But if you were here fighting with the Ylissen Exalt, that would mean…" Valens trailed off as he took a double take of the man before him.

Robin nodded somberly, "if you're thinking what I suspect you are, then you are correct. I.." Robin sighed, "I was general Robin of Ylisse."

"Heh," Robin glared as he heard a chuckle escape Valens mouth, "I am sorry, but you have to admit the irony is immense. After all, who would think that Robin of Ylisse, right hand of the Exalt himself, is also Grima reborn."

Robin smiled somberly at this, "I suppose you're right, I sure as hell didn't see this coming." His bitter smile reverted to a frown as he turned back to the bloodstain.

He barely noticed Valens walk beside him and look down at the stain on the floor, "so what are you going to do?"

"I have to fix this, I can't let everything we did fall apart now. " Robin said with some of his older determination and defiance surfacing. "I have not come this far only to fail at the end."

Valens nodded, "a better tomorrow then. Hmmm, you know I heard tales of you and the Exalt; they called you both heroes, knights, legends even. If anyone else told me they were fighting for a better tomorrow I would think they are either being deceitfully vague, or naïve idealists; when you tell me though, not only do I believe you, but I actually think you can do it, maybe that's why you two were considered such."

Robin smiled again, though this time, it seemed borne out of happiness and not bitterness, "that is… a nice way of thinking about it. We have stood here long enough though, that better tomorrow isn't going to make itself so we better get to it."

With the trio now moving past the scene and heading deeper into the temple, Robin began to feel a strange sensation. Though the events of the recent past still felt like ship chains dragging him to the bottom of a sea of guilt, he felt somewhat better knowing that he at least could work towards that future that he, Chrom, and the rest of the Shepherds had sacrificed so much for. Maybe if he could put that future together, it will make all the pain, tragedy, and loss mean something and not be so devoid of reason or purpose. Maybe he could even then go home.

As they continued into the living and work areas behind the main temple chamber, Robin and Valens searched through the now deserted dormitories and workshops of the former Grimleal occupants. Going room by room, Robin found it interesting that while the public areas of the temple were highly ostentatious and awe inspiring with the amount of craftsmanship and work put into them, the private areas of the Grimleal were quite Spartan in comparison.

Every room they went through in their search for answers had a reason to exist. Whether it was a room dedicated to the brewing and making of potions, training areas, blasting ranges, living quarters, smaller studies, or any other space a mage or one of the garrisoned soldiers might need, it all was simple and direct. There were no heavy decorations aside from the odd statue or the all-seeing six eyes of Grima. The rooms were all organized and well laid out in their design in order to ensure the utmost efficiency in the tasks of the residing mages.

Thinking along this vein, Robin suspected that if any archives were held here, they would be in the mages area most likely. Eventually the explorers search bore fruit as they stumbled upon a huge, ominous door.

"They are Mages through and through, like I said before." Valens held his torch up and read the words inscribed on the door, "Dragon's Table Repository, unauthorized access WILL be punished by death; they sound particularly ornery about this room."

"If Validar knew anything, he knew that knowledge was the greatest power the Grimleal had access to," Robin set his hand upon the door; slowly dragging it across the heavy wood, Robin felt the lines and etching in the door as a pit formed in his stomach. On the other side of this door were answers, Robin was sure of it, but whether they would result in fortune or disaster he did not know. He thought of turning back, looking for another path or another way; turning his head to look back at the way they came, Robin only saw darkness. The meaning was clear; he had no way back and only one way forward. With bricks in his stomach and sweat upon his brow, Robin slowly pushed the heavy door open with the hope that a bright and happy future could be found within.

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><p><strong>AN: As always, please let me know your thoughts on this chapter and how I can improve my writing. One thing I am trying to actively gauge that I would appreciate outside input on is GrimaRobin's development. Because I am writing them as the same person, I have to do a gradual shift from one's mindset to the others as opposed to the game having it be a day/night sort of change. If you guys can leave your thoughts on what you think of it so far(too slow, too fast, is it believable, is it good) I would greatly appreciate it.**

**Reaver Artorias: you will know if your guess was good or not in a few chapters.**

**Reynard: Exactly, not only do I get to have some fun writing, but we also get to explore a relatively unknown character and his past some.**

**For the next chapter I plan to explore the Grima aspect a bit more, but I am a little unsure of how to do it. Right now I am leaning towards more of an exploratory dialogue, but I have also considered posing it as almost a story within the story. Thoughts and suggestions on what you all think of this would also be helpful.  
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**Happy reading everyone,  
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**Burgundy**


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